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By the end of September work inside our building was finally wrapping up. We were all tired of being the warehouse Swiss Family Robinson...tired of the tubes and the porta potties...tired of sharing phones and computers...we wanted our home back.
All of our furniture had to be replaced, and although it was nice to have a new area, and a new modular and a new computer....we did have to pitch in and put them all together. It was like turning 60 people loose in a big empty building with nothing but instructions from IKEA. We knew the pieces fit together...but they didn't tell us they fit together lots of different ways.
Everyone became impatient as the move in date back into the building got closer and closer...of course everyone wanted to be the first back in, but IT was very specific about who had phone and computer access first...it got a bit ugly I can tell you...but by the first week of October we were back in our home...our roof now able to withstand any storm or natural disaster the desert could dish out. Life settled back into its natural rhythm in seemingly no time...and now we all had stories to tell of how we spent our summer...roughing it.
In case you're wondering.....standing water in July...smells really bad. So after the rain...the mess. Once the city had cordoned off the roof section of our building we were allowed back in to start gathering anything we could salvage...unfortunately all our computer CPU's were housed on the floor and we lost all files in lateral file cabinets - plus the server room had also sustained damage. Armed with brooms and mops and wet vacs we got most of the water out..but where would we go?
Being the resourceful people we are....our nice big relatively unharmed warehouse seemed to provide the answer...but with only 2 evaporative coolers and a staff of almost 60 - we could never survive in 105 plus degree temps for the 6-8 weeks needed to make our building habitable again...or could we...enter THE TUBES...with massive generators going 10 hours a day the tubes brought us the air conditioning we needed to survive and so with mad skills that would make McGuyver proud we built an office home in a warehouse.
In the first part of my dream there was a storm...a monsoon storm.
Every summer in Arizona the monsoons roll in....the humidity rises and the afternoon sky fills with ominous clouds that usually accompany a wall of dust that covers everything in its path with grit, and dirt. Then the lightning and rain come...monsoon storms can be very brief, but very intense or they can linger a while causing flooding and wind damage.
It was just after the fourth of July the seventh I think and the monsoon storms were coming in almost every night. The humidity was up and it was 105 degrees or so and the middle of summer. The storm on this particular night built up over the course of a few hours and by 9:00 p.m. the wind was whipping and the rain was coming down in sheets. Central Phoenix was bearing the brunt of this cell of the storm and the radar showed several microbursts (a microburst is a small, very intense downdraft that descends to the ground resulting in a strong wind divergence).
At my office in central Phoenix this particular monsoon was really stirring things up. I work in a large building with a flat roof and an even larger attached warehouse. On the side of the building are two large trees that provide shade and an area for employees to eat lunch or take a break. Lightning hit one of those trees that evening and caused a large limb to break and fall onto the roof. The limb was dense and leafy and completely blocked the rain gutter on this part of the roof. A microburst ensued and at least 2 inches of rain fell. The water having nowhere to runoff pooled on that portion of the roof. Water is heavy - and at 9:37 the roof could not hold the weight any longer.
The roof collapsed and when it fell one of the ceiling beams sheared off the water main that rested underneath that portion of the office sending thousands of gallons of water into our building. The first employee to arrive was a driver who upon entering the lower warehouse dock area saw water seeping out from underneath the doors. Inside the building and the throughout the warehouse stood 17 inches of water. When he unlocked the door and opened it...the cascade of water filled the back parking lot...when the front door was opened an ocean of paper, files, seat cushions and office supplies flowed out of the door and onto our lawn.
We were lucky, had the storm occurred during working hours investigators concluded that at least 10 employees could have been killed with many more injured.
You lay down for a little nap and suddenly it's six months later...just think of it this way...remember in Dallas how that whole season basically went to hell and everything was outta whack and then Pam wakes up to the sound of the shower and Voila it was all a dream...well a few of the details are a little hazy but for the most part here is what happened in my dream...
By the end of September work inside our building was finally wrapping up. We were all tired of being the warehouse Swiss Family Robinson...tired of the tubes and the porta potties...tired of sharing phones and computers...we wanted our home back.
